Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
by Zoraya Windwalker
Summary: This story was put online alread, but somehow it couldn't be opened anymore, so here's another try!  When you reach the end of a road,you have to decide if you take the easy way and turn around,or if you're brave enough to on,to jump right into the unknow


So… I'm back from my trip! And I KNOW I should work on a new chapter for "Expect the Unexpected" BUT, this oneshot had been in my head for days now, and it won't let me write anything else SO, I wrote it, put it online, and NOW I can finish the new chapter of the other fiction ^^. Shouldn't be too long now. Either way… as always, a HUGE thanks to AVECIA, my amazing beta (who's even MORE amazing in real life!) because without her, not ONE of my fictions would quite work out!

I don't own anything 'bout TVD, I only wish I would.

Oh, before I forget: bear in mind that this is a oneshot, and there is NOT enough room in a oneshot to make EVERYthing seem… well, plausible, I guess.

Now, on with it!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

It's been a hard fight, blood and dirt and… other things she couldn't care to identify, everywhere around them.

But it was done now. The Original, the ghost in the back of all of their minds, the shadow that haunted them day and night, _Klaus_, was gone. Dead, killed by one of his once-upon-a-time loyal followers.

She still couldn't believe that Elijah really had kept his promise. That he had made sure to keep as many of her friends and family safe as he could.

Sure, there had been… collateral damage. Rose was long gone now; dead because they hadn't been able to find a cure for the werewolf bite in time.

And Bonnie would never again be able to see again, the part in her brain that was responsible for sight irreparably damaged by a spell too much for her.

But now, standing here in the middle of this clearing, with all her loved ones at least alive, she couldn't care less about such things.

They were all still here and they were alright.

At least, that's what she thought, until the anguished scream from Stefan told her something else – that it wasn't over.

Her head snapped up at the sound, and before she registered what she was even doing, her feet had carried her to where the younger Salvatore brother was kneeling on the ground, his face desperate with such innate fear that it tore her nearly apart.

And as she followed his gaze, she knew why. Because there on the ground was Damon, clutching at his throat. A throat that looked like someone had tried to rip it out. Or….bite a chunk out of it, because where his hands couldn't quite cover it, she could clearly make out the marks of teeth.

But even as she saw the marks, they were beginning to disappear, to heal. As his skin was, once again, unmarred he carefully pushed Stefan back, and then pushed himself into a sitting position.

His face looked blank, mouth set into a thin line as he patted his brother on the shoulder and finally got to his feet.

All the others were standing in a semi-circle around them, eyes wide and stances unsure. It was a testament to how far they'd come in the past few months, how _close_ they had become, because on every single face there was worry, dread, and even grief.

Because healed as the wound might have been at the moment, they all knew that sooner rather than later, the poison that was a werewolf's bite to a vampire would make its way through his body.

The first one to find his wits again was Damon himself.

His usual, cocky grin plastered on, he simply shrugged his shoulders, and started to make his way back out of the woods.

"Well, the chances of all of us getting out of this alive were rather small from the beginning. So lose the deathbed faces. You can get them back on when you start to dig out my grave."

With that he put on a burst of speed and was gone, back to the Boarding House, leaving Elena, Stefan and everyone else to follow.

Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

He was standing in his bathroom, wiping at the fogged up mirror to get a look at himself.

It was kind of strange, how he couldn't quite bring himself to worry. Only a few short months ago he had watched Rose die because of a werewolf bite.

Slowly, painfully, graceless. She had screamed till her throat was sore and bloody, her skin turned grey and corpselike, even falling off in large chunks all around where the bite had originally been. Until, at the end, nothing of her was left but a completely mad _being_, not even remotely human anymore.

He knew he should be afraid. If not of the pain, then because of everything else. Losing his mind, falling apart.

The easiest way would probably be to run into a wooden stake. Or to take off his ring and greet the sunrise in a few hours.

But there was nothing in him that really cared about that kind of…Self-preservation.

Also, he never was one for the easy way out. For him, it would also be the _only_ way out. If it had been Stefan or Caroline to get bitten, they would've been okay.

There would be a way for them to survive, because they knew of a cure. Only, it wasn't anything that could help him.

_Flashback_

_They had a damn cure. After searching so frantically for one – to help Rose – they finally had one. Only now, it was already too late._

_Rose was dead; the permanent kind. And only two days later, Isobel strolled into the living room of the Boarding House, holding a manila folder in her hands._

_She laid it on the coffee table, not bothering about the shocked faces of the people surrounding her, eyes locked only on Elena._

"_You might need this, sooner or later. It's the only thing I can do for you, without getting myself into trouble. I guess I'll see you. Someday."_

_And as soon as she appeared, she was gone again, leaving them to wonder about the contents of the folder._

_Not for long though, as Elena got her act back together, took the folder and opened it._

_Leafing through its contents, her eyebrows climbed higher up her forehead, the more she read._

"_Well, I'll be damned. Listen to this:_

…_**For all I've been searching, going nearly crazy to find help, I've found the cure purely by coincidence.**_

_**I've nearly given up now, for even with my magic, I won't be able to keep her alive for much longer. The poison is starting to spread throughout her body, leaving her body in pain, and her mind in shreds.**_

_**But then I stumbled over this old archive and there it was. A way to cure my beloved. It is quite simple, actually. The only thing I have to do is die. You might know how much more powerful the last drop of blood is than all of the rest. How it gives a vampire much more strength and power to drink till a human is drained. And all because of that last little drop – for in this drop, there is the essence, the spark of one's life.**_

_**Only, in order to cure a vampire from a werewolf's poison, it can't be the blood of just anyone, nor would it help to force or compel.**_

_**It must be the blood – all of it, right down to the spark - of a loved one, freely given.**_

_**I admit it is quite smart to make it like this. Not many vampires even have the ability to love left.**_

_**But I don't care. She loves me, and I love her. So I shall go and take blood from her, so she can have mine. And then we'll be together, for however long our eternity shall last…"**_

_End Flashback_

The memory of that day brought a sad smile to his face. He certainly had the ability to love. The only problem was that – as always – he had chosen the wrong woman. Elena had barely spoken to him these last few months. First, he had tried to kill her brother. And then he stopped her from sacrificing herself. Though he regretted the first, he couldn't bring himself to feel even the slightest bit of remorse over the latter.

Her friends and her family were safe, even without her death.

But his actions had built a wall between them; had shattered the friendly feelings she once held for him beyond repair.

He knew that she never would've been his, but now, she wasn't even his friend.

With one last look at his face – his throat, that soon would look anything _but_ unmarked – he put on sweats and a shirt, then exited his bathroom.

Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

A few hours later, the Boarding House was eerily silent, even though it wasn't even remotely empty.

But nobody dared to speak a word; they just sat in the living room, cringed every time they heard another scream coming from upstairs.

Damon forbade them entrance to his room, not wanting anybody to _'see him like this'_.

'This' being screaming in pain and losing his mind.

Elena had abandoned to living room for the kitchen over two hours ago, not able to stand the glances shot into her direction whenever his voice reached them.

She fought a war with herself at the moment. Since the night he had snapped Jeremy's neck, she desperately had tried to uphold her hate. She felt that it was her right, and also her responsibility to do so. He killed her little brother. And only a short time later, he made sure that she couldn't do anything to spare them all the hurt of a fight with Klaus.

But it had been a fight, every step of the way though. There had been so many things that made it too goddamn hard to keep hold of that hate.

Him, jumping in front of a wooden arrow for her – an arrow, that could very well have ended him.

Or the way he came with Stefan to save her… bringing back her necklace, telling her that he's in love with her. Trying to compel her to forget (which would have happened, if not for the vervain-laced tea she had drank only minutes before) again.

And now, she sat here alone, not knowing what to do. Now that Klaus was dead, she could just live her life in peace. Fall in love with a nice, human man. Go to college, marry, have children… all the things she had dreamed of, before everything that had happened. Also, it would be horrible, to disappoint everyone even more. And disappointed they would be, if she were to go and die – even if she would go and wake up again, in transition, because that was what would happen.

On the other hand… she was falling apart at the seams already, only thinking about being without Damon. No matter how she had treated him, the hate in her had waved its final goodbye a good long while ago, leaving her with the polar opposite.

She had ended things with Stefan not too long after he got out of the tomb again, because she couldn't stand the way her thoughts always wandered to his brother when she was with him but… she had promised herself that she would go back to _normal_ if she survived. Cut the ropes to the Salvatore brothers, and steer clear of the supernatural – as much as she could, anyway, with a witch and a vampire as best friends.

So lost in her thoughts, she didn't realize that she had company until another scream from Damon made her look up, causing her gaze to fall on Bonnie and Caroline.

They were sitting down left and right from her, Bonnie being led by Caroline.

For a few minutes they were just sitting beside each other, not saying a word. The first one to break their silence was Caroline, and Elena would have smiled about the predictability of that, if it weren't for the fact that the man she… had feelings for was dying.

"Can you remember the summer when we were like… ten, and we played wedding in the tree house your dad had built us? We promised that we would be the bridesmaids for each other when we were grown up. We promised we would be best friends forever, to always be there for each other, through thick and thin. Remember?"

Elena had no idea why Caroline wanted to talk about that now, but still nodded her head.

"Yeah, I do but…"

She was interrupted though by Bonnie's hand on her arm. Bonnie let her fingers wander down her arm until she reached her hand, where she intertwined their fingers for a moment.

As she let go again, Elena looked down; there on the palm of her hand, was a delicate ring with her initials engraved in the blue Lapis Lazuli stone.

"Well, now we make sure that at least two of us can keep the promise of _forever_. Come on 'Lena you know as well as we do, that it would _break_ you to let him die. So… The ring is from Bonnie, so you'll be able to walk in the sun and… from me you get the means to… wake up again."

With that, her eyes were surrounded by blue-black veins, eyes dark and bloodshot, fangs elongated and razor-sharp. Without a moment's hesitation she bit into her own wrist and held it out to Elena.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

She had made her way through the living room, all eyes on her, but nobody even tried to keep her from going upstairs.

Now she was standing in front of his room, trembling all over, afraid to even open the door. But it wasn't fear for her own life that stopped her from entering. No, she just dreaded the moment she would lay her eyes on him, and actually _see_ his pain, how he suffered, instead of just hearing the occasional, muffled scream.

But as she thought about the agony that carried with every sound she could detect from him, she steeled herself and went inside, closing and locking the door behind her.

Then she turned around and made her way to his bed, not stopping as her gaze finally found his figure.

He was lying on his back, eyes wide open, sweating all over and struggling to take in unnecessary air.

The skin on his throat was gone by now, leaving only raw flesh, and his hands were gripping the chains he made Stefan secure to the wall tightly. She shook her head at that… only Damon would think about chaining himself up so he wouldn't go and munch on his friends (and friends they were, no matter what he, or they, might say). Well only he, and Tyler on a full moon night.

Carefully she sat down beside him and lifted her hand to caress his cheek.

His eyes snapped to her face, momentarily wide in wonder. But then he seemed to calm down and leaned into her touch.

"Finally. Finally my mind is…. Starting to…go…"

First she was confused what he meant, but not for long.

_He thinks I'm a hallucination. He doesn't believe that I would actually come and see him._

It sent a momentary spark of pain through her, but then she was relieved. He would never just drain her dry. For _nothing_. But like this? He might not even put up much of a fight now.

"I came to save you, Damon. Take what you need, get the spark. I save you, and then we'll be together. Always."

She probably wouldn't have said it like this under other circumstances, but then again, she tried to be as… nice and love struck as possible. All to make him think that his mind had made up a pleasant last memory to take with him.

He smiled up at her then, pain seemingly forgotten, and she knew without a doubt that this was the right thing to do.

She leaned down to him, and placed the gentlest of kisses on his mouth, before she got her hair out of the way and bared his throat to him.

He hesitated only for a moment, and then she felt his fangs penetrate skin and flesh, sinking deep into her veins.

It only hurt for a moment, and then the only thing she felt was a light suction.

Out of the corner of her eyes she saw the keys to the chains, so she took it. After fumbling around a bit, she had them open, and soon after his hands were on her, pulling her even closer.

Soon she felt her eyelids getting heavier, and a strange numbness came over her whole body. Her vision got blurry and then, all went black, the last thing she felt, smelled and recognized as real, the man that held her heart.

Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

When she opened her eyes again, she was safely embraced by strong arms, and sun was shining through the windows of the far side of the room.

Everything was different, and yet still the same, but most of all, _she_ felt different. Free, happy and loved. _Whole_.

She turned around in the arms that held her, and her eyes were captured by a pair of beautiful blue ones, gazing at her in amazement and so much love she nearly drowned in it.

She smiled at him and lifted her hand to his cheek, just as she did last night as she came to him.

But this time he knew she was real, knew that his own, personal miracle had happened. She loved him – had chosen a cursed life, just so he could live on.

"I love you."

She closed her eyes for just a moment, overwhelmed by too many feelings at once. Then she looked at him again and held his gaze with hers.

"I love you too."

She spoke the words softly, but sure, without a doubt or regret in her mind.

"Forever."

Xoxoxoxoxo

So, I KNOW I was NOT nice in this one, BUT, there was a happy end! And they BOTH said "I love you". That has to count for something, don't you think? Also, I know a few people might think that, if he drains her dry, then there is no vamp blood left to bring her into transition… but I kind of think that, she has to drink the blood, so it's not really in her veins at first, but in her stomach and then everywhere else. At least, that's what I think.

Now it's your turn, just click on the little button and tell me what you think! Reviews are love!

So long,

Zora.


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